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RE: 24-hour clock

>Can anyone tell me whether it is standard usage - in English - to have two
>names for midnight (i.e. 0:00 of the following day AND 24:00 of the
>preceding day)?

It's not standard, but it's a GREAT idea. Let me explain why.

When I moved from my old address to my new address, I asked British Telecom
to terminate service at my old address "midnight Saturday". (I was moving
out over the weekend and had a bunch of final calls to make on Saturday
morning.)

Okay, says the man at British Telecom, filling in his online form.

I make a few calls on Friday night, go to bed, wake up Saturday morning -
and the phone's dead. Five frantic phone calls on mobile and public pay
phone later, I find out what happened: the man at British Telecom wrote down
the date I wanted to be disconnected - Saturday 24th November - and the
time: Midnight. His online form made it easy for him to use the format:
24-11-01, 00:00.

The moment the clock hit 00:00 on 24-11-01, I was disconnected.

Now if he'd written 24:00 24-11-01, I'd have had phone service when I needed
it and several nice people at British Telecom who were just doing their jobs
wouldn't have been screamed at by a stroppy technical writer on a quiet
Saturday morning. (Admittedly I wouldn't have had this problem if he'd been
bright enough to fill it in 23:59, either, as I pointed out to the
Professional Soother during my fifth phone call that morning.)

Jane Carnall
Age. Fac ut gaudeam.
Apologies for the long additional sig: it is added automatically and outwith
my control.

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